The Lighthouse's Tale
by Luvergirl of Books
Summary: What would you do for love? Would you die for it? Live for it? Take it by the hand? It's one thing to ask these questions; another to answer them. And yet another to stand by, watching, while your existence is casually looked over and yet revered. Curious? Confused? Talk to my Lighthouse buddy - he'll tell you a story.


**A/N: **Well. It's been awhile, hasn't it? Miss me?

No, just kidding. I've missed this, though. All of this. But I'm finally back, and I just hope I can stay back for a while!

Since it's been so long, I'd just like to say thanks to everyone who has reviewed my stories that I never responded to. I loved reading them-even though my life went on, FanFiction stayed right where I left it, and that makes me smile.

Therefore, I shall make you all cry! *cackles* ...Yep, looks like I'm back.

But yes, lets get on to the wonderfully sad and angsty fanfic that I've needed to post for _ages_. Allons-y!

* * *

I am a lighthouse. I have no name; at least, no name that I ever knew of. My lamp is ceaselessly lit, to help the sailors on their way inland. Throughout the years, I have been worn by weather and waves, but I continue on in my persistence. In my great tower, so many joys have been founded, though scarcely ever last.

My keeper is long gone, but I've had many visitors. Through them, I know of one in particular is especially well known. Halt, a Ranger I believe he was, was here once. You may find him here still, but I can't search very in-depth to make sure. He has a fairly well known story around here, which few know the _true_ events of; only I know. Would you like me to paint you a picture from my past? As I have said, joy in this life seldom lasts.

* * *

Halt stayed with me for a while. I don't know if he was on a kind of vacation, or if he was based on my land, or anything. I just know that he was with me.

He helped me. The small man always made sure that my lamp burned brightly, to help the seafarers to land. Like most decent-minded people, he knew of my inanimate nature; but the grizzled Ranger talked to me. He confided in me for every thought that passed through his head, though I never responded; he never expected me to. He had needed someone to listen, not someone to talk.

As little time passed, we had grown closer; I grew fond of him, and his joy became my own; it meant everything to me.

Soon after he came to me for the first time, he was joined by another—not another Ranger, but someone very, very close to Halt. He was to marry her; Pauline radiated with beauty and life. They loved each other more than anyone else could have even begun to fathom. At the top of my tower, for two nights, they sat together with me and watched the sunsets from beginning to end.

* * *

Unfortunately, she had had to leave us after this. Halt had spoken to me on this matter: she'd had to leave on a mission to another country that was unreachable by land. He kissed Pauline's elegant hand, then her beautiful lips, and she waved him farewell. He watched her go, and continued watching long after the boat had left the pier.

As the light of day quickly diminished, he ascended my tower to keep watch over her ship the better. The leaving daylight caused my lamp to light, casting my revolving light across the sea, then the beach, then the sea again. Though there was nothing he could prevent if things went badly on board, Halt continued to watch. The most he could do was pray for her safe return, and that he did.

Even as we sat, a storm began to brew. Even as he then stood to his feet, the brewing grew full-force, and waves and wind and rain in the sea began to create massive disturbances in her great waters. The raging storm took control, and nothing else was evident.

In me, Halt was helpless. He watched Pauline's ship fight, but in vain, against the well-lit, terrible wind. With great agony, the Ranger was a spectator to this scene; it was horrifying.

My beacon swept along his view of the boat. Light: Halt saw the crewmates drop to their knees to withstand a massive wave about to come crashing on deck. Then it was dark once again. Light: in one paralyzing moment, he saw his fiancée, face twisted in a scream as she dangled by half off of the side of the ship. Then the impending darkness wrenched the view from his eyes, until the beam of light returned.

In me, helpless still, he was unable to wrench his eyes away from the sea, as, dashed against the immense jagged rocks, she met her end, to never be again, to never again live.

Halt had sunk to his haunches, still observing the ghastly scene at sea; he was no longer capable of the strength to stand. Ample sobs racked his small frame, though I do believe that he was unaware of this fact for the longest time. Still unawares, he wept himself to sleep.

But I incessantly swept my lamplight across the scene.

* * *

Halt had awoke the next morning, face red and raw, tear tracks vivid on his cheeks. Without so much as a word to me, he descended my tower. Much to my grief, I could still see the grizzled Ranger on the beach, in the surf. His next actions tore my heart.

He had found her.

Running as though he could save Pauline from the eternal sleep she'd fallen into, Halt reached her body that had washed upon the shore. He caressed her pallid, white cheek. He kissed her cold, lifeless face. I saw him crying; not the great racking sobs that had plagued him the night before, but quiet, silent tears. This was somehow more sorrowful, more heart-wrenching for me to witness. Though I hadn't been able to hear him, I know he'd sworn to her that they would soon be together.

With those silent, relentless tears still cascading down his face and drenching him, Halt buried his beloved in the dry sand and smooth stones.

He pulled his cowl up over his face after he finished with her small, briefly worded stone marker, but I could still see the resolve in his stance, in his eyes. Halt climbed my tower with remarkable, immense determination. Once he reached the top, where my lantern lies, he hesitated. For a moment, he ran his callused hand along my curved walls, as if caressing my interior the way he had caressed his lover. But, as everything in existence was, this touch did not last forever.

And off the edge of me he ran. I could see him no longer.

* * *

I feel the waves crashing around me, still to this day, and the sand slipping out to sea. This, along with the winds that blow around me, reminds me of what has been.

And what can never again be.

* * *

As I was back then, many years ago, and still to this day, I am weatherworn. The wind and the waves and the washing sand see to this. And aside from the occasional tourist, I am empty. I have never again felt the same joy and peace as when the Ranger and Courier had been with me; I doubt I ever will. But to this day, I still warn the sailors on their way to the shore. I am eternal, even if just to see that this story never dies.

_Finis_

* * *

**A/N:**This was inspired by The Lighthouse's Tale by Nickel Creek. I cried while writing and re-reading this.


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